Ugandan officials on Friday said more than 40 people have been killed after a river in eastern Uganda burst its banks.
Many homes were submerged in water and other destroyed by a landslide, disaster officials said.
There have been ongoing efforts to rescue victims since Thursday when the disaster occurred in the town of Bukalasi in the Bududa district.
There are still a significant number of people who are still missing as a result.
Uganda Red Cross spokesperson Irene Nakasiita says “I can confirm 34 people are dead. We have to wait for our assessment to be completed before we can say how many are missing.”
The cause was the river bursting its banks upstream following heavy rain. When the water flowed down it brought a number of big stones with it that destroyed people’s houses.
Our search and rescue team is still on the ground evacuating people and removing them from the rubble.”
Officials have called the landslide a “massive” disaster with the death likely to increase.
The Bududa district is in the foothills of Mount Elgon. It lies on the border between Uganda and Kenya.
The region is a high risk area for landslides. In 2010 more than 300 peopled died from a landslide in the same Bududa district.
Source: Africafeeds.com
